Only a few years late, we’re getting a Justice League Unlimited in main DC comics continuity. In the wake of the Absolute Power event, the long disbanded Justice League reformed, and every superhero gets to be a member. That origin showed up last week with DC’s All In Special, written by Joshua Williamson and Scott Snyder with art by Daniel Sampere.
Except there’s a trick there. That creative team wrote a story called “Alpha.” If you flip the book over, you get a story called “Omega,” by Scott Snyder and Joshua Williamson teaming with Wes Craig on art. Note the credit reversal. Because “Omega” leads into Snyder’s Absolute Batman, a version of Bruce Wayne who becomes Batman without the benefit of family wealth. Shortly after that we’ll get an Absolute Wonder Woman and an Absolute Superman, characters destined to be sort of like the versions we know, but without the posh upbringing.
At the center of both stories, a connecting mural drawn by Dan Mora with colors by Tamra Bonvillain reveals the new greatest threat to the DC Universe. And it’s not the rising costs of buying crossovers.
The “All In” branding is already showing up on regular DC books. Each such title promises to be a jumping on point for new readers, without a lot of baggage to hold them down. Except that was the promise a little over a year ago with the “Dawn of DC,” which was interrupted by a crossover that some books never quite recovered from.
On its own, All In Special would be great except for its calculated cliffhanger. There’s some hand-waving about the multiverse being cut off from this Earth, but for the casual reader exhausted by the MCU, that’s probably a selling point.
The story spotlights a few lesser heroes that are nonetheless fun. Though I really liked the secret nobility that Geoff Johns gave Booster Gold, a return to the well-meaning but fame-obsessed goofball version makes sense. It also resonates once more in a culture filled with influencers. Plastic Man conspicuously shows up in a few panels, as does Metamorpho. Williamson and Snyder get me.
But of course, it has to turn dark because this is 2024. The Justice League can’t just throw a party and not expect their own Maleficent to show up. Because going All In means Darkseid, and this time, he looks to be the Ultimate Darkse — what’s that? Disney’s trademark lawyers called? Oh. Okay.
There’s a promise that this sets up a lot. And after the success last week of Absolute Batman #1, Snyder commented that he and artist Nick Dragotta were on it for at least two years, and would keep doing it as long as we kept buying it. That offers me the hope that we have a chance for a status quo to hold. And if it doesn’t exactly feel like Batman, this absolute version does offer a bold take that’s at least interesting.
But it had to be Batman, because if this character were called something else, it wouldn’t have garnered nearly as much attention. The excellent Snyder has collaborated with several artists on several good books that weren’t for DC and the market has barely noticed.
How this will tie into the main “All-In” for DC remains to be seen. But maybe it shouldn’t be seen at all. Just promise that we’ll get good stories that entertain new readers and old alike. Because that’s all we want — we’re running out of descriptors for comic book reboots. DC went “All In,” a couple of years ago Marvel went “All Out.” Of course, we’re also on our second “Ultimate” Marvel Universe while the “Absolute” characters also exist on an Earth the Justice League calls “The Elseworld,” not to be confused with “Elseworlds,” DC’s line of other alternate takes on classic characters. (Here’s a plug for Gotham by Gaslight: The Kryptonian Age.)
In the end that doesn’t matter. What matters is if we actually want to buy the books.
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